UPS takes on airline baggage with 'luggage box'

Serves the American Airliners right for fleecing the passengers for baggage checked in - barring Virgin & Southwest traveling on Airlines in the US is a rip off and paying for the bags was adding insult to injury . Would UPS consider shipping veggie meals next ? Continental has done away with veggie meals on board "as a matter of policy "

One of the comments made in relation to this article is about the airlines "fleecing customers for their luggage". My intial reaction was annoyance. Then I realized that it indeed is a shame for the airlines to bully their customers and charge money to transport the poor passengers. After all new aircraft that the airlines acquire and have to maintained are purchased at the dollar/pound shops, that airline employees ought to be ashame of themselves for wanting to be paid for their work and at the same time deliver quality service, that the airlines should dip from their own inexhaustible coffers for the exorbitant taxes, landing and parking fees that governments and airport operators charge and that airlines should compensate passengers for every flight irregularity that happens, including natural disasters and most of all for airlines to think that they are a business instead of a charitable institution that should provide the passengers, new and well-maintained aircraft, sterling customer services and that at no cost to the suffering customer. Airlines, shame on you!

Carrymyluggage.com provides domestic services for the USA, UK, Europe as well as International shipments (i.e. USA to UK).

We've been providing services since 2005 and welcome UPS' forward thinking in developing such services.

I'm a former Op's mgmt veteran of UPS Airlines, proudly so, & am proud of Big Brown in this endeavour as well, yes indeed. At the same time, Ray is correct, via his sarcasm. Baggage, as obviously necessary that it is for the traveler, still takes up space & weighs weight & uses add'l fuel to haul & etc etc. It shouldn't necessarily be used as a convenient cash cow, I'd agree with most folks, but to haul it for free is absurd. Either include the cost of its carriage in the ticket or split it off & itemize its expense, but do NOT lug it around the country or the planet for free. That's just dumb.

Good point Ray! As a passenger who travels light, it's always bothered me that the price of my ticket is inflated to cover the cost of those who insist on carrying hundreds of pounds of luggage along with them.

It was my understanding that the price of a ticket had been prepriced with the passager being allowed one carry on and on check in bag of a max of 35lb. I understand that with the rising price of gas, the airline industry added this extra fee ontop of their originally priced tickets in order to compensate (not counting the increased price in the actual tickets), but in the end you are paying twice for the same service, once when you buy the ticket (which should also have that sterling service fee added in) and then again when you actually check your bag. My question is, once the airlines get back in the black, will they drop the extra fee or will we be waiting on the price wars again before ticket pricing change?

Cheers to this response.
Lets not forget that the price of the average air ticket for the leisure traveller is less than it was in 1970's. how many other products have that claim.
In addition.. to the veggie meal complaint. If anyone has special dietary requirements whether it be for religuious, medical or personal reasons. Buy you own food and bring it with you.
Like a menu at a restaurant.. you should only have to pay for the services you use. I am very happy paying the $25 to check a bag when I need to instead of paying an extra $25.00 every time i buy a ticket. And I always bring a Subway sub with me. I fly 500,00 miles a year.

Passengers normally does not pack their bag with the things they need and don't need. On a week vacation, you only need 2 prs of jeans and 2 shorts instead of 7. I saw hairdryers and big shampoos checked in and 5pairs of shoes. Travel light should be practiced. Airlines don't make a lot of money due to high fuel cost and landing fees. My gosh! 3 flts a day could cost an airline $100k a month in landing fees. Airline try to stay afloat.

Some people don't realize that ramp workers are people too. About 50% of the bags checked in are 40lbs or over.
A flt with 140 passenger would have an average of150 bags checked in. A ramp worker lifts about 700 heavy bags a shift. What do you think happens after a week's work? He call in sick, bad back, separated shoulder, etc. This cost goes to the airline and their healthcare provider.

flyguykev is one of those intelligent and reasonable flyer.
he knows about the business of flying. There were so much abuse in checked bag when they were free. It is unfair to a frequent flier who has a small carryon and a personal laptop then you see people with load of luggage piled up in front of him. It holds up the line. About snacks they are making peanuts illegal now. It is safer and maybe healthier.

I totally agree with the comments made by the UPS ops mgr. Baggage is weight and customers should pay to ship weight. Why not take the concept further and charge customers by weight. The rate might be a little lower as most of us don't require a baggage handler to load and unload. I would be glade to pay by the pound.

Having just flown back in a middle seat between two 250+ pound passengers and paid for my R/T ticket plus over $200 in additional fees each way for my bike case and checked bag. Baggage being 2x the price of the ticket. I feel like the two people sitting next to me got the much better value for their ticket price. I guarantee you that my bag (23lbs) and bike case (47lbs) plus my weight was less than the weight of each passengers sitting beside me.

The airlines could establish standards base upon a healthy body mass index chart and charge a premimum for individuals that exceed the allowance. I don't think it would be all that difficult to administer and judging from the average weight of the traveling public they would most likely create a revenue enhancing tool or at a minimum create an incentive for people to lose a few extra pounds. In that fuel one of the largest variable costs and consumption is corolated to aircraft weight they could also easly adjust the weight base pricing to match the change is fuel cost.

All in favor of a weight based pricing model!

It's precisely this kind of attitude on the part of many [legacy carrier] employees that makes travelers frustrated and drives them to airlines like Southwest, JetBlue et al where customers aren't treated as irritants in the employees way.

You DON'T get "exactly what you deserve" when you buy an airline ticket. Children, often 1/5th the weight of adults are charged exactly the same. Bags going cross-country are charged the same as going 200 miles. $2 for water bears no relationship to cost--especially when you're not allowed to bring your own through "security."

To claim you get exactly what you pay for would imply that the airlines charge everyone exactly the same thing, when we know that's grossly untrue, i.e. some pay 5X the cost just based on arbitrary distinctions of advance purchase, company discount codes etc. Airlines manipulate frequent flier programs to become profit centers by taking huge advance payments from credit card companies, then charging all kinds of fees and restricting redemption to the point of making them valueless.

Airlines have switched the burden of booking [while eliminating travel agency commission costs] to the passenger - making everyone spend hours on their [often] unwieldy websites comparing and inputting information, then charging exorbitant fees to book/change trips when the airline did no additional work. Not to mention being told to show up hours in advance to check in at a kiosk [saving the airline further] while actually increasing congestion because of more people spending longer times waiting.

If I buy a nonrefundable seat on a particular plane--getting exactly what I paid for--why shouldn't I be able to give/sell that to someone else to use without a fee? Southwest is one of the few airlines that doesn't attach a fee to make changes [yet they charge you full fare if you want to standby for a seat that would otherwise be empty...go figure].

When customers that provide the revenue for the airline employees are treated as objects of ridicule and disdain, no wonder more of those customers react negatively. There's little sense of fairness and equality in the system, and the bile regurgitated by this employee underscores that.

Didn't happen to catch what the price would be for the luggage service. But did notice that it might not be same day depending on the service level.

I don't understand your reaction at all. I fly for the last 25 years over 120K miles a year and do that all over the world. No other major western country has such add on fees and such a lousy service like airlines in the US. As and American I have to be ashamed of our own airlines.

How can for example Asian carriers be able to provide service, have flight attendants that are able to provide service, serve meals, transport luggage, have more leg room in economy class and on top of that not charge extra for it and still be profitable?

How for example can Thai Airways serve a snack on a 45 minute flight (on a B747-400 with no empty seat) including beverage service and not charging a dime extra? How can they do that since they face the same challanges US airlines are facing?

Yes in the US passengers abuse the system, but as an airline we have made it easy for them. Now that the airlines are harvesting the bad fruits they planted they complain.

In the end, it is the airlines that are trying to push the limit to see how far they can go and with what they can get away. US carriers are in the world the airlines with the oldest aircraft's, lousiest service and the most add on charges.

US carriers should start looking a other successful airlines and go and learn from them how to operate successfully and provide service. Especially flight attendants should go and learn from their international colleagues. For a while UA used to have flight attendants that where Asians and based in countries like Singapore, Thailand and Korea. The on board service on those inner Asian flights had been exceptional and a total opposite to the flights to Tokyo from the US. Unfortunately they have laid off all those good examples of employees because UA unions demanded those jobs for US based flight attendants. What happen is obvious, service went south!

And for UPS, good for them to be there for their customers and provide them with a viable service, since the airlines can't do it.

Before you all break your arms patting UPS on the back, do the math. This service is extremely expensive (I just called them for a quote) If you are paying for convenience fine, it may be worth it to you, however dont sell this on being an ecomonical alternative because it is at least 3-4x more expensive than using the airline luggage service. (bargain at $25 but a pain I agree)

I must admit that they are experts in the area of damaging everything that they handle - no one I know does that better. So, what can brown do for u?

If it has to be bent, broke, banged up, busted, or bascially destroyed then UPS is the company for you!